ABSTRACT
In art criticism, writing and performing are treated as categorically different. Writing relates to a concrete product, the inscribing of symbols on a page. Performance is treated as an ephemeral activity, as symbolic expression in a space. Writing is of the mind; performing is of the body. Writing is private; performing is public. In line with these distinctions, no scholar that I have found has dealt with the theoretical work of French feminist Hélène Cixous in any way other than as writings. The emphasis of the general corpus of feminist analysis has been almost totally on what she is trying to say rather than what she is trying to do. However, in at least one piece, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” it is the action that Cixous both takes and suggests that has caught my attention. In her search for a new woman’s voice, Cixous has managed to cloud the difference between writing and performing, making symbiotic the relationship between them. I would suggest that this relationship forms the basis of possibility for Cixous’ petition to “write from the body.” Previous attention on the Cixousean body as bio-sexual or psycho-sexual being by feminist critics has not left room for discussion concerning the “Medusa” body as that which takes action.
